What is True Pain?
by Babyfaced
Summary: When Sakura comes home late one evening, she learns what true pain really is. When Sasuke and Naruto find her, Sasuke re-lives something he wishes he didn't have to. And how did Hinata get dragged into this?
1. And she comes home

          Blood. Crimson red blood.

          It stained the floors, swirling and mixing with Sakura's tears. She sobbed loudly, her hands covering her face. Her parents lay not more than three feet away from her.

          Her mother's once beautiful face was now covered with blood, her arms and legs broken. Her father was lying facedown on the floor, a large pool of blood around him. They were both clearly dead.

          Sakura never felt more alone in her life. She remembered coming home in the early evening, to find her parents like this. She had dropped to her knees, crawling to where her parents were. It was night now, and her pink hair was matted with blood, her arms were caked in it too.

          She knew she should go get help, but she could not find the strength to even stand. She vaguely remembered the things Sasuke said about feeling pain.

          _"You do not know the meaning of true pain. True pain is losing something you cared deeply for. True pain is being betrayed by the person you looked up to and admired most." He had paused then. "True pain is knowing... you couldn't even do anything about it."_

          Sakura understood what he meant now. When she looked at her parent's mutilated bodies, when she remembered she was the weakest member of Team 7, when she remembered why she had come home so late...

          _"Sasukeeee... can I watch you train?" Sakura said, using her shrill, annoying voice._

_          "No..." Sasuke said, sounding irritable. _

_          "Pleeeeeease?" she said, making her voice higher (if that was possible). _Very soon he'll get annoyed... he'll have to give in! _Inner Sakura said inside her head, crackling evilly. _

_          "Argh..." he turned to face her. "If I let you watch, will you shut up?" _

_          "Yes." _

_          "Fine..." he said, and put his hand to head in hopes of making it stop pounding._

_          Sakura let out a squeal of glee. Sasuke looked annoyed at this. _Heh heh... _Inner Sakura giggled._

By the time he was done training, the sun was setting, so she hurried home.

          _I'm so stupid... _Sakura thought. Tears stung at her eyes. _I'm so stupid... I was so obsessed with Sasuke... I didn't... I couldn't... I... I'm so... I couldn't do anything!_

          "I'm so stupid!" She shouted, tears pouring down her face. _I have to get up... I have to find help... I have to be... strong..._

          With much effort, she dragged herself up off the floor. She staggered to the door, her feet scraping on the floor. They felt like they weighed a ton.

          When she was outside, a cool breeze blew against her face. She shivered. To a dry, warm person, the nighttime wind would feel pleasantly cool. Sakura, however, was drenched in a cold sweat, and the fact that her parent's blood was all over her didn't help either. The breeze felt icy, and her teeth chattered.

          "My... head..." she whispered weakly, her head throbbing in pain. She leaned against a lamppost. She willed her knees not to buckle. _C'mon... come on... Stay strong... alert..._

          "Oh, god..."

          Sakura collapsed. Fighting to stay conscious, she realized she was barely twenty feet away from her house. There was no way anyone would find her now.

          _I'm so weak... I couldn't protect them... Even if I had gotten there earlier... I wouldn't have been able to do anthing._ Tears streamed down her face once more. She was being swallowed by sadness again.

          She let out a weak sob. She rested her face on the pavement, lying there. The last thing she heard before passing out was someone shouting her name...

          This originally supposed to be a one-shot, but as I wrote it, I began to see potential for a chapter story. I may continue it. It's my first Naruto story. Not very good, I know...


	2. And they find her

Sasuke was going crazy.

At least, that was what he kept telling himself as he walked alongside Naruto in the nighttime. Naruto had asked him to come with him to the ramen bar, and he, for the life of him, did not know what possessed him to agree.

Sasuke suppressed the need to kill Naruto as he babbled on and on about something. What, he didn't know; he had tuned it out a long time ago.

He held his head. It hadn't stopped pounding since Sakura had damaged his eardrums with his extremely loud, and HIGH voice. _Really_ high. He fingered a kunai, wondering if he should throw it at Naruto or tell him to shut up. Or both.

"Sasuke..." He was testing the kunai against a tree trunk, to see if it was sharp enough to penetrate Naruto's thick skull. "Sasuke... SASUKE!" Sasuke jumped back, throwing the kunai at Naruto. He caught it and pocketed it with a frown. "Sasuke no baka, why aren't you listening to me?"

_Because you're an idiot, dobe_ was on the tip of his tongue, but he managed not to say it. Instead he observed his surroundings. They were near his house now, which was close to Sakura's. He vaguely recalled the conversation he had with Sakura while she watched him train.

_"Sasuke, you train to become stronger and get revenge on your brother, right?" Sakura asked timidly, knowing it was a sensitive subject with Sasuke._

_ "...Yes..." Sasuke said slowly, while throwing kunai at a particularly narrow tree. They hit every time._

_ "Would you... would you have preferred if Itachi had killed you too?"_

_ He stopped throwing the kunai. He turned to face Sakura. "It's none of your business."_

_ "Well? Come on, tell me!" She said firmly. Sasuke was surprised, she was never this persistent. Usually if he didn't want to do something, she just left him alone. He sighed._

_ "Yeah, Sakura, sometimes I do." He said heavily before turning back to the tree._

_ Sakura just sat there, deep in thought._

As his eyes passed over Sakura's house, he noticed something. A something with pink hair by a lamppost. Or... someone? Sasuke's eyes widened. "Sakura?" he shouted. This startled Naruto and he followed Sasuke's gaze.

"Sakura!" He shouted in horror. He bounded forward.

Sasuke just stood there in shock. He numbly moved his gaze over to Sakura's house and pathway. He was disturbed to see... bloody footprints. Sakura's footprints?

He ran forward. As he passed Naruto helping Sakura up, he looked puzzled and said, "Sasuke?"

Sasuke reached Sakura's porch. He put his hand on the doorknob, trembling. Why was he trembling? Why did this remind him so much of... that night? Why was he afraid to open the door? Disgusted with his own fear, he wrenched opened the door and gasped when he saw what was inside.

Sakura's parents were lying on a bloody floor. They were sprawled across the ground. They looked so lifeless, so... dead?

Sasuke looked on in terror. Sakura's parent's... dead? The way they were just lying there... it reminded him too much of _that_ night. He looked away. He could almost hear Itachi's icy voice saying, "_Run,_ _little brother... run away and live as an avenger... live in false hope of seeking revenge on me..."_

"Sasuke...?" Naruto had reached the door, with Sakura's unconscious form slung over his shoulder. He gasped when he looked inside. "Sakura's parents...!"

He turned to Sasuke. "Sasuke, hold Sakura." Without waiting for a reply, he pushed Sakura into his arms. He then ran into the house to inspect the bodies.

Images of his parents' bloody corpses flashed across his mind. He shook his head to rid himself of the horrible memory. Sasuke stared down at the girl in his arms. Her hair and body was covered with her parents' blood. Her face looked ghastly pale. Was this the same girl who constantly fawned over him? Was this the same girl who had broken her friendship with Ino because of him?

Naruto looked up from his crouching position on the floor. "Well, they are dead."

Sasuke frowned. "I think that's pretty obvious, dobe." Naruto glared at him.

"I'm serious. We have to get help." He stood. "We've gotta find Kakashi."

"Let's go." Sasuke said to him. _It might be nice to have someone who understands my pain... maybe..._

As they ran off into the night, Sasuke failed to notice he was cradling Sakura in his arms.

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I may continue this with a chapter for Naruto, or maybe not. We'll just see! Heh, I accidentally typed voice instead of face in the sixth to last paragraph. Changed it!


	3. And he ponders

By the time they reached Kakashi's house, it was getting a little late.

"Kakashi!" Naruto ran up the porch. He pounded on the door.

No answer.

"Hel-_lo_?!" Naruto was getting annoyed now. Sasuke could tell.

"Kakashi, if you don't get your a--" He was rudely interrupted by the door slamming directly into his face.

Kakashi appeared at the porch, looking angry. "If you damn kids don't-- Naruto?" He noticed Naruto lying on his back on the ground, holding his nose.

He also noticed Sasuke standing a few feet away from him. "Sasuke? What are you-- Sakura?!" Kakashi shouted, just THEN noticing Sasuke was holding Sakura in his arms.

"Is she...?" He said, looking worried, making his way over to where Sasuke was.

"That's not her blood, Kakashi." His face was grim.

"It's her parent's blood." Naruto had gotten up, and was walking towards them.

"_What?_" was all Kakashi could muster.

Naruto proceeded to explain. "Well, me and Sasuke were walking--" Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Sasuke merely scowled. "--and we found Sakura like this. Sasuke went to inspect her house and we found her parents dead." _And he looked a little scared, too..._

As if reading Naruto's mind, Kakashi glanced sideways at Sasuke.

Naruto put his hands in his pockets, casting his eyes downward. He felt kind of sorry for Sasuke. _Seeing that must have awakened something in his mind..._

Breaking the silence, Kakashi's voice suddenly turned very businesslike. "What are we waiting for? We gotta get to the hospital, pronto."

Naruto and Sasuke just nodded. The three of them sped off into the direction of the hospital.

--

Naruto stared at Sakura, lying in a hospital bed. Kakashi had gone to get the bodies, and Sasuke had left to get food.

The white sheets, the white walls, the white ceiling, and Sakura's pale, almost white face. Dammit, the whole frigging building was white.

_I never really liked white._

Naruto didn't really like white because... because it was just boring. He, Naruto, was an energetic kind of person, and not at all the quiet type, or, as a matter of fact, a good listener either. He was a more talk, AND more action person. He had the tendency to do a lot of things at the same time. That was usually why he messed up a lot.

He gazed down at Sakura, feeling bad. He wondered how she had reacted when she found her parents.

Speaking of parents... Naruto felt really bad for them. Despite the fact that they hated him, he wasn't the type of person to be glad someone died, unless they were evil. And he knew very well Mr. and Mrs. Haruno were anything but evil.

_It stings whenever someone pushes me around or calls me demon or treats me like dirt, they just don't understand. They don't know the pain I've gone through, the life I've had to live alone... They think I _am _Kyuubi, and they do not recognize that I sacrificed m future and childhood for them..._

Naruto felt tears welling up in his eyes. He wiped them away. _C'mon Naruto, no time to feel sorry for yourself... remember what happened to Sakura..._

Naruto used have a crush on Sakura. He fell for her, and he fell _hard_. But after being directly rejected, he had given up hope.

_"Sakura?" Naruto asked nervously._

_ "Yes?" Sakura turned to him. She noticed the flower in his hands. She also noticed him looking straight at her. A determined look, undermined by anxiousness. _

_ She realized what was going to happen. "Oh."_

_ "Sakura, I've... I've... always really... liked you..." Naruto began, looking hopeful. Sakura had her eyes cast down, toward the ground. "Will... you go... on a-a... date with me?"_

_ Sakura looked up at him. "Sorry Naruto... I just... don't feel the same way." She looked truly, sincerely sorry._

_ Naruto turned away from her. "Yeah. I was kind of expecting that."_

_ He stiffened when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "We can always be friends, right?" came her voice._

_ Despite the fact he was heartbroken, his ears perked up at this. _No one's ever asked me to be their friend!

_ "I'd like that, Sakura." _

_ She beamed._

But that was all in the past. What he felt now towards her was nothing but brotherly love and concern. After all, she was the closet thing to a mother he ever had.

          As he looked down at Sakura's pale form, he observed the white.

          The endless, colorless white. It made him feel a little depressed.

Until he remembered a certain girl with white eyes. He smiled a little.

_Maybe all white isn't so bad._

The door to Sakura's room slammed open, interrupting Naruto's thoughts.

Naruto was annoyed at this. "Hey you! Why are you barging in here disturbing the--" It was a few seconds before he realized who was standing there.

"Hinata?!"

----------

Hehe. I thought I'd leave you with a cliffhanger. Next chapter, you find out how Sakura's parents died. One question-- are either of Sakura's parents ninjas?


	4. And she's a witness

**_(Sorry folks, all I did was rewrite some of this chappie. But, there SHALL be a chapter 5 soon!)_**

"Hinata! What are you doing here? Why did you slam the door?" Naruto seemed a little angry.

As she tried to catch her breath, Hinata remembered what had happened that very afternoon.

_Hinata__ walked in the late afternoon air, feeling free._

_ If only for the moment._

_ It was rare her father gave her a break from training, so she supposed she'd better make the best of it. So she had left her house to get some fresh air._

_ She observed her surroundings as she walked along the road in the center of the village. She looked on as people did last minute shopping before going home to their families, or bought things before the shops closed at around evening._

_ She didn't really know where she was going, her feet seemed to be moving without thought from her. _

_ Hinata had stopped at the ramen bar earlier, hoping to find Naruto there. To her disappointment, he wasn't there. In fact, it surprised her he wasn't there. He was there almost all the time. In fact, she guessed his daily routine was wake up, train, eat ramen, train, eat ramen, train, eat ramen, sleep._

_ She even went to his apartment, and the lights weren't on._

_ Frustatrated, she gave up. So here she was, wandering around doing nothing._

Today just isn't my day. How can it get any worse?

_ She was nearing the quieter, less busy part of the Konoha now. In truth, she was glad to get away from all the hubbub and get some peace and quiet. She was just that kind of person._

_ Hinata saw Sakura's house up ahead. She continued forward._

_ She and Sakura had been friends for a while now. Sakura got a little frustrated with Hinata's shyness now and then, but all in all, it was fine._

_ As she walked by the house, she paused to admire it._

Such a pretty house

_ She would have continued on her way then, if she had not heard a stifled scream._

_ Curious, Hinata went over to the window. She gasped at what she saw._

_ Hinata covered her mouth to muffle the scream that was threatening to burst forth as she surveyed the scene that greeted her. Both Sakura's parents were lying on the blood-stained floor. Their limbs were horribly twisted, and there were stab wounds all over their bodies._

_ A girl, a little older than Hinata, was holding a blood-stained knife. It seemed that Hinata had just walked in at the exact moment she had killed them. The white-eyed girl's horrified expression quickly changed into an angry one._

_ "What... are... you... doing..." Hinata labored to get the words out in her fury. _

_ The girl smirked at her, her Leaf headband glinting in the half-light. "Ah, but it's not what I'm doing- it's what I did."_

_ Hinata's hand gripped the windowsill tightly as the other one strayed to the kunai pack on her leg. "Who _are_ you?"_

_ Her lip curled and she smiled an evil smile that made Hinata's blood run cold. "You don't need to know. This should teach you Konoha ninjas to show some RESPECT to perfection when you SEE IT."_

_ Hinata paused in the act of lifting a kunai out of her bag and stared at her. "Aren't you a Konoha ninja?" _

_ She smiled that smile again as she tapped the metal forehead protector, "Ah, but I stole this from another one of your 'ninja.' I think his name was Seiji or something." _

_ Hinata remembered him. He was one of the jounin._

_ The girl sneered at the look of recognition on Hinata's face. "Yes, him. He made a satisfyingly high-pitched scream before I killed him."_

_ She continued, "You know, I started at the academy when I was nine years old. I labored for years to become a ninja. I studied the scrolls, I learned the jutsus by heart. And still they refused to graduate me. So, just to prove I was willing to give up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to fulfill my dream of becoming a ninja, I cut off my own hand." _

_ Just then, Hinata noticed that her left arm ended in a stump. The Hyuuga heiress winced. _I'm surprised she's not in a mental asylum by now.

_"Yes," the girl screamed viciously as she ran towards Hinata, "I did it. And you still REFUSED me the only thing I wanted in life: to become a ninja."_

_ Hinata recoiled as the crazy girl tried to grab her, and she thrust the hidden kunai into the girl's arm._

_ The girl yelped and retreated, running out the door. Hinata rushed after her. The girl was evading her surprisingly well, considering the fact that she was mentally unstable. _It might actually take a while to catch her. _Hinata__ thought worriedly._

_After a lot of chasing, night had fallen and she hadlost sight of the girl._

_ Hinata returned to the house to get the bodies._

_ So, she was surprised to see Kakashi there inspecting them._

_ "Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata said. He looked up, surprised._

_ "Hinata? How did you--" He paused. He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you here? So late at night, too?"_

_ "Well..." she hesitated. "Well... uhm... you see..."_

_ Kakashi looked at her sternly. "If you know something about what happened to the Harunos, you should tell me."_

_ Hinata stared at the ground. "Uhm... I was taking a walk this afternoon... and I happened to hear..." She told him what happened. By the time she was done, his eyes (the visible one, anyway) were wide._

_ He said slowly, "I think I remember her... she was being kept locked away because of mental unstability..."_

_ Hinata coughed and said politely, "Yes... I kind of noticed that..."_

_ "Anyway, the hunter-nin were sent to find her because she was suspected of killing the ninja guarding her. She has been... disposed of." _

_ Hinata thought of what she had seen of the girl and said quietly, "It's... better she died then go on living that way."_

_ "Well... know that we know, you should go tell Naruto and Sasuke. They found Sakura in the street, unconscious, and now they're at the hospital. I can't go, I have to clean up this mess." He gave her the room number._

_ She sped off._

"Well?" Naruto said. He sounded a little impatient, too.

"Sorry -- _wheeze_ -- I was -- _wheeze_ -- in a hur -- _gasp_ -- ry to tell -- _gasp_ -- you..." She bent over, breathing hard. She had run all the way there.

"Tell me what?" He was curious now.

Once she steadied her breathing, she once again recounted the events of that afternoon and night.

"The hunter-nin caught her and... took care of her." Hinata finished.

Naruto was furious. "A _crazy girl cut off her hand_! A _psycho_ killed them!" Hinata nodded.

"And she they had _nothing to do with her_?"

Nod.

Naruto fumed. "Stupid--"

The door opened. Sasuke had gotten the food. He was holding two bowls of ramen.

Sasuke paused. It was obvious he was surprised Hinata was there. Talking to Naruto no less.

Then he knew something was wrong. He'd been in the room for about 10 seconds, and Naruto wasn't jumping on him to get the ramen.

"Okay, what happened?"

**_A/N: _****I have basically lost interest in this story. But, for the readers' sake, I will press on- maybe I'll get inspiration. I have rewritten this chapter because, yes, I agree, Hinata was totally lame. But hey, that was a year ago! angry silence from readers A year ago that I updated... heh... heh... sorry...? Okay, okay, I know. I'm such a bad person for leaving you guys hanging for... more than a year. another angry silence I said I was sorry! ; Anyways, I'll try to get up chapter 5 in _less_ then 365 days. :)**


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